Aerating washing apparatus



United States Patent ()1 3,1 l lfi d Patented Nov. 2%, 1963 ice 3,111,686 AERATING WASHING APPARATUS Stanley L. Sierant, Marlands, Cross Roads, Keighley, England Filed Sept. 25, 1961, Ser. No. 140,561 1 Claim. (Cl. 4-180) This invention relates to a washing apparatus embodying means for aerating the water or other washing liquid in a bath or other container, one important application of the invention being for aerating bath water whilst a person is in the bath to give a beneficial skin and/ or body treatment.

Such a form of treatment is known for alleviating rheumatism and like complaints and for toning up the skin generally, but the apparatus heretofore used has aimed at producing minute air cells, forming thick rfoam.

One object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which includes a length or lengths of tubing perforated with a multiplicity of holes and supported in or below a frame, mat .or the like, on which a person may sit or lie in the bath, and a portable air compressor with its outlet connectible to said tubing.

Preferably said tubing is perforated all round its circumference and is supported in or on a frame so as to leave virtually all the perforations unobstructed and thereby enable the air to be discharged in all directions directly into the surrounding water, and not through permeable materials as has been previously proposed.

To this end the frame has a top surface which has as great an area of openings as is compatible with the comfort of the person to be supported thereon, and the tubing is spaced clear of and below this surface, the whole forming an aerating unit.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus "wherein the compressed air is discharged directly into the water via pockets, channels, ducts or the like formed in a mat, cushion or like device or in the structure of the bath itself, said pockets or the like being constructed and arranged so as to discharge the air through a multiplicity of holes.

The result of using such a discharging unit is to produce comparatively large bubbles compared with the thick, fine foam usually produced in foam baths, and particularly to produce a strong disturbance or ebullition of the water, comparable to that produced by mechanical devices in a clothes washing machine.

The tubing in the frame, or the Whole of the aerating unit as the case may be, may consist of natural or synthetic rubber, plastic material -(e.g. P.V.C.), noncorrodible metal, glass fibre or any other suitable material, and this may be moulded or otherwise made in the form of a mat or pad containing numerous pockets or channels which comunicate both with the inlet openings for the air from the compressor and also with a multiplicity of holes in at least its upper surface. These holes may be for example, of the order of A in diameter, and are located so as to give uninterrupted discharge of the air direct into the water, and the pockets or channels will likewise be large enough to permit the air to pass through with the necessary velocity.

Preferably the mat or pad will be flexible so that one size may fit in baths of different sizes.

Alternatively, the pockets or channels may be formed in the bottom and/ or walls of a bath or other container. A further object of the invention is to enable the washing apparatus or at least the aerating unit thereof, with or without suitable modifications, to be used for washing cloths or other fabrics either on a domestic or an industrial scale or for washing crockery and other table ware or articles. In such adaptations, the container for the water or other washing liquid would be constructed to suit the clothes washer for the dish washer as the case may be.

In all cases the construction of the apparatus is such that a strong ebullition is produced by the passage of the multiplicity of :air streams through the water, giving a strong massaging effect on the human body when used in a bath and in all uses of the apparatus giving a strong dirt-freeing or loosening effect. In some forms of the apparatus, for example in the dish washer form, means may be incorporated in the unit for heating the air so that after the container has been emptied of liquid the crockery or the like can be dried oif by warm air. In some forms of the apparatus the air can be passed through a container holding perfume or disinfectant to perfume or purify the Water or the Washing medium. Also with the bath aerator, the heated air may be diverted through one or more perforated upstanding pipes and directed over the bather for drying purposes.

The invention is hereinafter described in certain embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings but which are to be regarded merely as examples and not as limiting the scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claim.

In these drawings:

FIGURE 1 illustrates one form of apparatus according to the invention for treating a person in a bath, and shows how the aerating unit with its frame is located in the bath;

FIGURE 2 is a plan of the aerating unit shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 shows the separate members from which the frame is constructed; and

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 but illustrates a bath aerating unit in the form of a mat or cushion.

Referring to the construction of FEGURES 1 to 3, the illustrated apparatus consists of an electrically driven air compressor of any suitable kind, preferably of the fan or impellor type, housed in a portable box A and adapted for plugging into a power socket preferably outside the bathroom for greater safety. A flexible tube B can be connected to the compressor outlet and to the open end of a length of plastic tubing C. This tubing C may have a length of the order of 10 ft. to 15 ft. and is perforated throughout its length and round its circumference with a large number of holes. For example, in a tubing of inside diameter there may be upwards of holes per inch run each of inch diameter.

The frame D of the aerating unit is of Wood and consists of two side members 1, two end members 2, five spacers 3, and three bottom and three top members 4, 5. These are secured together as shown in FIGURES l and 2 to form a hollow openwork frame, the top members being smooth and shaped for comfort and curved at one end to fit the bath interior. The spacers 3 have holes through which the tubing is laid to and fro along the frame interior between but clear of the top and bottom members, one end of the tubing being closed and the other projecting through an end member 2 to receive the tube B.

By the above-described construction of aerating unit a multiplicity of very strong streams or jets of air can be discharged directly into the bath full of water to give a strong agitation of the water resulting in a strong body washing and massaging effect, comparable with any clothes washing machine.

For gentler massage and highly beneficial skin penetration effects, this equipment can be used with bubble producing compounds added to a quantity of water sufficient to cover the aerating unit. This can also be used under doctors orders with suppl' ing necessary prescriptions to add to Water for medical use.

The equipment differs from any known foam bath equipment not only by the size of the bubbles produced, but that the bather can commence with (say) 3 to of water to which the bubble mixture is added and which gives a bubble bath. After a few minutes of this treatment, addition of further Water will gradually disperse the bubbles and on reaching the full level the bath operates as a human washing machine with a pronounced massaging effect.

Referring now to the construction of FIGURE 4-, in which like references to those used in FIGURES 1 to 3 are applied to the same or similar parts, the apparatus consists of an electrically driven air compressor of any suitable kind, preferably of the fan or impellor type, housed in a portable box A and adapted for plugging into a power socket. A flexible tube B can be connected to the compressor outlet and to the inlet pipe F projecting from a moulded plastic mat. The pipe F communicates with a grid-iron pattern of ducts closed at one end thereof, and these communicate throughout their length by a multiplicity of holes with an identical and registering pattern of channels formed on each face of the mat.

The holes or perforations joining the ducts C to the channels E may number approximately 30 per inch run of the ducts and are of the order of in diameter or between and This produces the necessary multiplicity of fine streams of air which produces the ebullition effect in the mass of water in which the mat is submerged.

The continuous grid of channels facilitates escape of the air in spite of the obstructing effect of the body reclining on the mat, although a system of pockets or recesses (interconnected or not) might serve the purpose.

From the above example it will be obvious that alternatively the bath might be made from a plastic material moulded to produce integral with it a similar system of internal air ducts and i( on the inner face of the walls) of surface channels through which the air is forced into the water. Also it will be obvious that the bath could be replaced by a container suitable for Washing clothes or other fabrics or by one suitable for introducing crockery or other articles supported in a basket or like carrier.

'4 All these modifications are embodiments of the same basic aerating or washing unit.

I claim:

A valveles s washing and aerating apparatus for treating the body of a person in a bath with an aerated Washing liquid comprising a generally rectangular, fiat open frame structure which lies below the surface of the Washing liquid in the bath, said frame being provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced supporting elements resting on the ends of said frame and transverse supporting members intermediate of said ends which serve to support said longitudinally spaced elements along the width thereof on which a person may be supported in the bath, an electrically driven fan compressor to deliver air to tubing secured to said frame structure below the surface of the washing liquid, a single length of flexible tubing closed at its remote end from the compressor and connected at its other end to the outlet of said fan compressor, said tubing being laid in Zigzag manner in the spaces across the width of said frame structure to form a continuous length of transversely extending bubbling grid into which air is pumped from said compressor, said tubing being entirely supported by said frame below the top surface of said frame and being uniformly perforated along the length and about the circumference at about 30 perforations per inch with a multiplicity of generally circular holes of a diameter between and whereby air is discharged directly into the Washing liquid surrounding said frame to produce comparatively large air cells during the washing operation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,793,640 Schwartz May 28, 1957 2,848,203 'Misiura Aug. 19, 1958 3,031,685 Baumann May 1, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 516,204 France Dec. 3, 1920 305,030 Great Britain Jan. 30, 1930 827,391 Germany Jan. 10, 1952 

